The Maryland Terrapins crawled past the wrestling team Saturday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Although Maryland defeated Duke 25-9, all of the Terrapins wins went the distance, and they edged the Blue Devils by a mere point in four of those victories.
"They didn't overpower us by any means," Duke head coach Bill Harvey said. "We wrestled them right down to wire just about every match. [The one- point losses] are the worst kind of losing because you can figure out so many ways you could have won those."
The lone pin of the match belonged to the Blue Devils, as sophomore Chris Heckel picked up Maryland's Luke Leary before throwing him to the mat for the pin. Actually listed in the 134-pound weight class, Heckel moved down to last year's weight, 126 pounds, to pick up the victory.
"Realistically, [Heckel] should be at 126, and we knew team-wise we would be stronger," Harvey said.
The match began with sophomore Indra Sulijoadikusumo dropping a narrow 3-2 decision in the 118-pound class. With Heckel's victory, Duke seized its only lead of the match at 6-3. But freshman Dan Kocab, filling the void left by Heckel at 134 pounds, lost to Maryland's Shane Mack, 4-1.
With the match knotted a six, Duke sophomore Dan Covatta faced Terrapin Jeff Whalen. Trailing 5-1 with 1:30 remaining, Covatta got an escape point, cutting the lead to three. As the clock closed under 10 seconds, Covatta earned two more points with a takedown, closing the gap to 5-4, but the final seconds ticked off before he could produce the final point.
"I didn't score when I needed to, and that is what it came down to," Covatta said. "[At the end] we got in a flurry, I came out on top with a take down. Before anything else could go on, time ran out."
In the 150-pound weight class, Maryland's Pat Flynn was able to get junior Scott Frinzi off his feet for a takedown en route to a 3-2 win. Senior Keith Pavlick fell to the Terps' Mike Van Oss 6-3 at 158 pounds.
In the 190-pound weight class, Maryland's Humphrey Atiemo, who was ranked nationally earlier this year, narrowly defeated senior John Kays 5-4. With under a minute left and the score 5-3, the referee awarded Kays one point after calling Atiemo for stalling. However, Kays could not bring the fellow 190-pounder down in the few ticks left on the clock.
"I was going into him and he just kept backing up, backing up," Kays said. "That was smart on his part because he could give up a few stalling points before the match closed out."
With the match well in hand for the Terps, the Blue Devils did not roll over on their backs, as sophomore heavyweight Matt Eckerman defeated Maryland's David Vermier 3-1 in an overtime thriller. With a small but boisterous Maryland fan contingent shouting, Eckerman knotted the score at one going into the third. Once in overtime, where a takedown guarantees victory, the quicker Eckerman had the advantage.
"We thought our lighter heavyweight would be in better shape than their big guy," Harvey said. "If we have to, we'll take him into overtime, wear him down some more and then try to get the takedown. That's the way the plan was, and the plan just happened to work."
Consequently, Eckerman gained a 3-1 victory, and Duke won its second contest of the night.
"It is a little disappointing when you get beat like this, but if want to look at something positive, we know that when we hit these guys in the ACCs, we can turn the one- pointers around," Harvey said.
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